OutSystems Inks Deal with Nationwide

OutSystems Inks Deal with Nationwide

Low-code platform OutSystems has formed a deal with Nationwide to develop a new digital business savings service, reports Ruby Hinchliffe of FinTech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

By “dumbing down the back-end” so it becomes “a system of record only,” OutSystems will take on all the business logic and process for Nationwide, giving it a more agile front-end with less reliance on its legacy back-end.

OutSystem’s regional financial services and insurance director, Garry Larner, told FinTech Futures: “There’s a lot of legacy technology out there. It’s difficult and expensive to find talented developers, especially when it comes to native mobile. It’s becoming too costly to innovate, so that’s where we come in.”

He added: “In an ideal world you’d want to rip everything out and start from the beginning. But from a practical view, that’s not possible unless you’re prepared to spend hundreds of millions.”

The software platform can offer a traditional bank like Nationwide access to accelerators, such as templates, patterns and multi-factor authentication plugins which all speed up the UX development process.

It’s newest partnership with Nationwide is all about “creating the digital channel for business saving customers. Banking at the drop of a fingertip.”

Speaking more broadly on low-code, Larner recognized the “enormous” market opportunity, excited the industry is “finally catching up with the concept challenging the status quo – that traditional development is not the only option.”

OutSystems has had a 54% yearly growth rate globally and enjoyed a $360 million investment from Goldman Sachs and KKR last year.

Larner said: “There’s going to be a series of very large enterprise customers which we’ll be announcing over the next three or four months, because it’s almost caught up with the mainstream.”

Currently OutSystems works with British councils to digitize taxes, insurance companies to build broker portals, and, most recently, it is working on a new credit comparison market with a fintech to be announced soon.

Founded in 2001, OutSystems presented “Low-Code: The Next Evolution in App Dev Platforms” at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York 2017. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and has raised more than $422 million in total funding from investors including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Goldman Sachs, and North Bridge Venture Partners & Growth Equity.

Kabbage Acquires Radius, Adding Insights into Millions of SMEs to its Platform

Kabbage Acquires Radius, Adding Insights into Millions of SMEs to its Platform

Small business financing company Kabbage has made a purchase that will help it get to know the world of SMEs all the better. In a deal announced today, Kabbage will acquire small business intelligence firm, and fellow Finovate alum, Radius, adding insights from more than 20 million U.S. small businesses to its platform.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upon the successful closing of the acquisition, Kabbage said in a statement that it will add “nearly 20 team members” from Radius to its offices in San Francisco, including Radius CEO Joel Carusone, to help support the integration of the two platforms and the two companies.

“Data has always been our competitive advantage, and Radius strengthens it by adding millions of new and verified small business insights to our platform,” Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein said. “These new technology and data-analysis capabilities further differentiate us from other SMB-focused fintech companies as we dramatically expand our product set and service platform to address the unique cash flow needs of small businesses.”

Expressing a “deep respect for Kabbage’s data-driven technology and focus,” Radius’ Carusone highlighted similarities between the two firms. “Our companies have complementary technical architectures and domain experience for decision making,” he said. “With Kabbage, we can build a more sophisticated analytics solution to identify, reach, and serve small businesses.”

San Francisco, California-based Radius was founded in 2009. The company demonstrated its platform at FinovateSpring 2014, showing how it leverages big data to gain insights into more than 27 million small and medium-sized businesses. This information helps FIs find the best customer segments, build efficient and accurate targeted lead lists, and measure the success of marketing campaigns.

Radius began 2019 with the launch of its Data for Good campaign to help the company’s employees and customers give back to their communities. This included credit-backs to the accounts of for-profit companies for any data used to support philanthropic causes. The campaign also featured service donations to nonprofits to enable them to use the Radius’ enterprise customer data platform to reach out to and potentially partner with small businesses.

In May, Radius unveiled a new data stewardship app designed to fix bad, siloed Salesforce data. The new solution enables enterprises to manage data across any Salesforce field based on unified, trusted data. “Existing tools enrich some external data,” Radius CEO Joel Carusone explained, “but what’s missing is an easy-to-use application coupled with a powerful platform that gives users access to data unified across all third-parties and their internal data sets.”

Atlanta, Georgia-based Kabbage made its first appearance on the Finovate stage in 2010, demoing its Kabbage Loan offering at FinovateSpring that year. The company most recently demoed its Kabbage Card, a part of the company’s Kabbage Everywhere product expansion, at FinovateSpring 2015.

Featured in June by CEO World in its look at fintechs that are helping fight for fair lending, Kabbage announced a partnership with online banking platform Azlo in May that would create a new entity, Mission Street Capital, to help small businesses get the financing they need to grow. Kabbage also announced in May that it was teaming up with the BTEA (Building Trades Employers’ Association) in a strategic alliance to help women and minority-owned business enterprise contractors to secure funding for their projects.

With $2.5 billion in funding, Kabbage includes SoftBank Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and BlueRun Ventures among its investors. The company was founded in 2009.

Trusted Identities Innovator OneSpan Teams Up with Volkswagen Bank

Trusted Identities Innovator OneSpan Teams Up with Volkswagen Bank

Volkswagen Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, will leverage technology from OneSpan to secure its transactions and ensure PSD2 compliance. The bank announced today that it will protect its standalone mobile authentication app, PhotoTAN app, with OneSpan’s mobile SDK, Mobile Security Suite.

The SDK also enables the app to take advantage of OneSpan’s Cronto technology, which ensures banks comply with PSD2 requirements with regard to authentication and dynamic linking. Cronto offers a patented visual transaction signing solution that uses a graphical cryptogram of colored dots to encrypt transaction data. The technology provides banks with a strong defense against a variety of cyberthreats, including account takeover and man-in-the-browser Trojan attacks.

“Cronto is a unique technology available in the market in that it combines security and support for regulatory compliance with a seamless customer experience,” OneSpan SVP of Global Sales Dan Dica said. “This combination is important because it enables our customers to advance their digital transformation easily and securely.”

Citing customer demand and new regulation as key drivers of change in the financial industry, Volkswagen Bank Project Manager Mario Bandau praised OneSpan as a company that has “proven to be knowledgeable in all areas.” Bandau credited the firm for “providing us with all the necessary advice and the solutions we need to deliver the kind of experience customers request while ensuring PSD2 compliance.”

With more than €83 billion in assets and deposits of more than €32 billion, Volkswagen Bank is one of the leading direct banks in Germany. Founded in 1949, the bank provides new and used vehicle financing for Volkswagen brands, as well as direct banking and dealer financing. The firm’s PhotoTAN app, available on both iOS and Android, uses facial biometrics to authenticate and sign transactions whether those transactions are started online or on the mobile device.

OneSpan made its most recent Finovate appearance (as VASCO) at FinovateEurope 2017, demonstrating its Smile & Sign mobile onboarding solution. The technology provides institutions with a secure, easy-to-use, compliant way to onboard customers via their mobile devices using biometrics, push notifications, visual cryptograms, and e-signatures.

OneSpan has been in the fintech headlines frequently of late. In June, the company won the SIIA CODiE Award for Best Fintech Solution for its Intelligent Adaptive Authentication technology. That same month, OneSpan announced a partnership with Belgian online lender Buy Way, and launched its Secure Agreement Automation cloud solution for digital account opening.

With a market capitalization of $542 million, OneSpan trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker OSPN.

Mambu and nCino Co-Create Banking Solution for B-North

Mambu and nCino Co-Create Banking Solution for B-North

U.K.-based start-up B-North has chosen a German Software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, Mambu, to provide its core banking technology, reports Ruby Hinchliffe of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The Manchester neobank, which is still awaiting a license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), is the first client to experience a co-created solution by Mambu and a U.S.-based cloud banking tech provider, nCino.

The cloud provider will deliver its loan and deposit origination platform, enabling the challenger to speed up its processes and deliver a highly efficient, “minimum hassle” service to its SME customers.

“The advantage of creating a new bank without legacy systems or legacy business processes is we can design the solution around our customer’s needs and leverage the very best cloud-based technology,” said B-North CTO, Ewan Hutton.

He added: “Mambu has already proved its engineering capabilities with its core banking solution in the marketplace and for B-North it is a perfect fit vs traditional solutions that are over-engineered legacy designs with recent front-end face-lifts.”

B-North’s new localised technology will make loans available to SMEs in just ten working days, rather than the standard three to four months.

Currently, SMEs make up 99% of U.K. businesses and employ more than 16 million people.

nCino’s area vice-president, Jacqui Morcombe, said: “B-North is taking a progressive approach to its technology strategy. By building a foundational cloud-based architecture it is establishing itself as a customer-centric institution without the constraints of inflexible systems as market pressures shift.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. Berlin, Germany-based Mambu made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2013, and returned to participate in our developers conference FinDEVr New York in 2016. Mambu was founded in 2011.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Mambu and nCino Co-Create Banking Solution for B-North.
  • Kabbage Acquires Radius, Adding Insights of Millions of SMEs to its Platform.

Around the web

  • Paysend reaches one million customer mark for its card-to-card money transfer service, Global Transfers.
  • Tinkoff goes live with Pulse, a free social network for investors.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Tax Compliance Innovator Avalara Partners with Billing Automation Platform Ordway

Tax Compliance Innovator Avalara Partners with Billing Automation Platform Ordway

Avalara announced this week that billing and revenue automation platform Ordway is the latest company to join its Certified Partner program. Ordway customers will now be able to choose Avalara’s AvaTax to ensure accurate, real-time calculation of all applicable taxes, fees, and surcharges for every billed item.

“We’re excited to partner with Avalara to provide our customers with an option to automatically calculate sales tax,” Ordway founder and CEO Sameer Gulati said. “Our out-of-the-box tax calculations work for many of our customers, but for those that desire the additional power of AvaTax, our integration makes effortless tax calculation and collection possible.”

The integration will lower the amount of manual work typically involved in determining and collecting state and local taxes by providing sales and use tax calculations within existing business apps at the time of checkout or billing. Avalara’s systems keeps track of the most current tax rules and rates, covering more than 12,000 U.S. sales and use tax jurisdictions. The cloud-based, SaaS technology features 700+ prebuilt integrations into ERP, ecommerce, and other systems, as well as an advanced API.

“Ordway understands the needs of its customers, and their billing revenue automation platform reduces accounts receivable complexity for their customers along many fronts,” SVP of Business Development for Avalara Greg Chapman said. “We understand that digitization of business processes is not an option it is essential. We are proud to offer more accurate and efficient tax compliance solutions to our shared customers.”

In addition to the benefits of the AvaTax integration, Ordway customers who also use Ava CertCapture will also be able to seamlessly link to exception certificates collected and maintained within Avalara’s system.

A specialist in bringing tax compliance automation to businesses, Avalara presented “The Wacky World of Sales Tax” at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2015. The company’s senior manager for developer relations showed how the Avalara’s APIs help businesses navigate the complicated world of transactional sales taxes.

More recently, Avalara announced the acquisition of Portway International, a Canada-based firm that provides Harmonized System classifications and outsourced customs brokerage services. Earlier this month, the company reported second quarter revenue growth of 43% over the previous year, and more than 10,000 “core customers.”

“We continue to believe that the automation of transaction tax compliance will be adopted over an extended period,” Avalara founder and CEO Scott McFarlane said in a statement, “as customers upgrade systems, expand their businesses both domestically and internationally, and respond to changing government rules, such as the recent legislative responses to the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision.” The Wayfair decision refers to the 2018 ruling that states can collect sales tax from internet retailers.

Avalara began the year with a bang. In January, the company acquired the “operational assets” of a firm called Compli that helps alcoholic beverage makers comply with regulations with regard to alcohol production, distribution, and sale. A month later, Avalara was back in the acquisition business with a purchase of Seattle-based AI technology company Indix. Also that month, Avalara announced a trio of major executive hires: appointing Amit Mathradas as president and Chief Operating Officer, Sanjay Parthasarathy as Chief Product Officer, and Ross Tennenbaum as EVP of Strategic Initiatives.

Founded in 2004, Avalara trades as AVLR on the New York Stock Exchange following its 2018 IPO. The company has a market capitalization of $6 billion.

Indian Fintechs Get Funded; Finastra, Avaloq Bring New Leadership to APAC

Join us in October as our annual Asia-Pacific fintech conference returns to Singapore! FinovateAsia is one of the best ways for fintech startups and innovative industry veterans from the region and around the world to showcase their latest technologies before an audience of C-level decision-makers, venture capitalists, all-star analysts, and more.

For information on how to participate in FinovateAsia as a demoing company, partner, or sponsor, send us an e-mail and we’ll tell you everything you need to know.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • A partnership between R3 and Dubai’s platform-as-a-service company Wethaq will help digitize Islamic capital markets.
  • Working capital solution provider Demica goes live with supply chain finance technology from Saudi British Bank.
  • National Bank of Bahrain unveils new bulk cash deposit machines with secured with a biometric scan.

Central and Southern Asia

  • BharatPe, a digital payments company based in New Delhi, raises $50 million in new funding.
  • Tech Mahindra teams up with Adjoint to launch blockchain-based enterprise financial management and insurance services.
  • Bangalore-based fintech CRED announces $120 million funding round.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexican online lender Credijusto announces $42 million investment from Goldman Sachs and Point72 Ventures.
  • Brazilian online personal loan platform REBEL raises $42.2 million via financial loan securitization.
  • Forbes interviews Nubank founder and CEO David Vélez.

Asia-Pacific

  • Finastra taps Wissam Khoury as new head of its Asia Pacific (APAC) team.
  • Flywire partners with Vietnam Prosperity Bank to simplify international tuition payments  for Vietnamese students.
  • Avaloq appoints Imad Abou Haidar as its new Head of Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South Africa’s Nomanini inks $4 million deal with Standard Bank.
  • Brink News looks at the “game-changing” potential of fintech in sub-Saharan Africa.
  • SME financing solution provider Nvoicia takes top honors at Seedstars Ghana competition.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Tremend Software Consulting announces strategic partnership with Mastercard Romania.
  • CIO of AXA Poland Oliver Schemberg talks about the “people-led strategy” behind the success of its digital transformation.
  • SumUp opens new office in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Top image designed by Freepik

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Tax Compliance Innovator Avalara Partners with Billing Automation Platform Ordway
  • Finovate Global: Indian Fintech Get Funding; Finastra, Avaloq Bring New Leadership to APAC

Around the web

  • Plaid becomes a Nacha Preferred Partner for account validation.
  • Finastra taps Wissam Khoury as its new head of its Asia Pacific (APAC) team.
  • Revolut teams up with the WWF and The Rainforest Alliance to raise support for the Amazon rainforest.
  • Frost & Sullivan names Onfido the winner of its 2019 European Technology Innovation award for its AI-based hybrid identity verification solution.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: ARM Insight

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: ARM Insight

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 23 through 25, 2019 in New York City. Register today and save your spot.

ARM Insight’s synthetic data process unlocks the value of data by delivering actionable insights from hard-to-access financial transaction data while ensuring privacy is protected.

Features

  • Privacy data protection: reduce the use of raw data
  • Regulation compliance: manage privacy and data obligations
  • Product innovation: use artificial intelligence/machine learning tools to enable data-driven innovation

Why it’s great
Synthetic data is the breakthrough data set for maximizing your data potential while minimizing your risk. It is the future of data and you should be using it now.

Presenters

Steve Shaw
Shaw is responsible for the overall marketing, branding, and communications strategy for the company. He has over 20 years of marketing experience at startups and Fortune 500 companies.
LinkedIn

Jonathan Chin
Chin oversees overall product strategy. He started building websites at the age of 13 and later developed professional experience in corporate finance and accounting for technology companies.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Horizn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Horizn

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 23 through 25, 2019 in New York City. Register today and save your spot.

Horizn’s award-winning platform equips frontline employees and customers directly with the knowledge needed to improve customer experience and dramatically increase digital adoption across all channels.

Features

  • Gets employees and customers fluent on the latest digital innovation
  • Improves customer experience and drives digital adoption
  • Combines simulation microlearning methodology with gamification and analytics

Why it’s great
Using Horizn, banks increased digital adoption by 25% and brought call center times down by 45 seconds. Using the in-branch demo with non-digital customers, up to 20% converted to digital banking.

Presenters

Steve Frook
VP of Sales, Frook is focused on working closely with financial service companies to significantly increase their adoption/awareness of new and existing innovation.
LinkedIn

Robin Dindayal
COO and well-respected leader, Dindayal joined Horizn six years ago and has been integral in helping Horizn develop into an industry leader.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Eigen Technologies

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: Eigen Technologies

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 23 through 25, 2019 in New York City. Register today and save your spot.

Eigen’s NLP software goes to work on your documents, extracting information to answer your unique questions. Eigen puts the power of machine learning (ML) in your hands.

Features

  • Puts the power of ML in your hands
  • Enables you to build a ML model with 20 to 50 examples
  • Can be used by anyone

Why it’s great
Eigen’s natural language processing (NLP) software is highly flexible and easy to use.

Presenter

Lewis Liu
Liu co-founded Eigen Technologies in 2014 after earning his physics Ph.D at the University of Oxford. He started his career with McKinsey in London.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: BlueRush

FinovateFall Sneak Peek: BlueRush

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 23 through 25, 2019 in New York City. Register today and save your spot.

IndiVideo is BlueRush’s interactive personalized video platform. IndiVideo improves marketing and sales performance across the buyer journey from acquisition to engaging statements and customer care.

Features

  • Seamless CX, improved conversions and ROI
  • Higher customer engagement and satisfaction for increased up/cross-sell
  • Data-driven customer insights for improved sales and marketing performance

Why it’s great
Predictive analytics and customer data flow through IndiVideo for intelligent video production. Customer interactions with each video are captured for data analysis and deeper customer understanding.

Presenter

Ted Mercer
From chartered accountant to sales consultant, Mercer leads the sales team at BlueRush, searching for new ways to drive value for leading financial institutions using interactive, personalized video.
LinkedIn